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KM202 Documentation

Elation Mic Lab KM202

Cardioid Condenser Microphone

The KM202 is a transformerless condenser microphone designed specifically for kick drum.

The mic has very low sensitivity for a condenser, just 0.5 mV/Pa, and is therefore suitable for high SPL sources such as kick drum. The manufacturer claims a max SPL of 165dB, extraordinarily high for any microphone.

The following description of the KM202 was published on the web by one of Elation’s US distributors in the mid-2000s.

The Sound Room

The KM 202 studio condenser microphone for kick drum is a result of long term research in the nature of bass drum acoustics. The dynamic microphones that are usually used for internal miking of kick drums cannot compete with condenser microphone for precision and reliability. However, extreme signal distortion, caused by the ultra-high the SPL (sound pressure level) inside a kick drum has been a serious obstacle in the way of development of appropriate condenser microphones for this purpose. Thankfully, Elation research came up with a special capsule system that provides an extended, carefully shaped frequency response that is perfectly tuned to reproduce the lowest frequency bass response as well as blasting peaks. This capsule system gives the KM 202 the capability to reproduce a distortion-free signal even in sound fields of up to an incredible level of 170 dB!!! The KM 202 kick drum condenser microphone is the only microphone of it’s kind in the world. It sounds great! We at The Sound Room love it.